Beauty Editor La’Khouri Francis recently sat down with Teri Johnson, owner of the Harlem Candle Company, a luxury lifestyle brand inspired by Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance. In Black Out season where cancel culture continues to trend, Black-owned businesses are having a moment. Harlem Candle Company is one such brand.
It’s 2:02 p.m. and the first thing I noticed about Teri was her voice. Her travels no doubt add layers to her cadence and present a perspective that’s storied and mature beyond her years. But make no mistake about it, she’s from Harlem by way of Houston (originally) and she will remind you of that every now and then.
Her Instagram is a chic road map of places she’s been with lifestyle images accented strategically in her feed enough to give these aspiring travel bloggers something to reach for. They say smell is the strongest of the five senses and I’m sure Teri would agree.
For the past couple of years, she’s built what has become a successful career off that notion, as the Harlem Candle Company continues to become the lifestyle brand that blends her love for travel and iconic golden era renaissance culture from Harlem.
I had the pleasure of asking her about how the Harlem Candle Company started, the process of candle making, and the inspiration behind each of her most popular scents — and in light of protests, and new Buy Black initiatives, we got candid with Teri about her success as of late.
ON BUYING BLACK + BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES
We’ve received a lot of new orders of course and we’ve also gotten so much positive feedback from new customers and new followers on social media with people that are just excited about the movement that’s happening.
ON TUESDAY’S WITH TERI
I started Tuesdays with Teri to provide followers and artists on Instagram with an outlet to inspire during this time of the pandemic. I also wanted to inspire everyone through the Harlem Renaissance and to learn about entrepreneurship and candle making — highlighting business people.
ON THE EVOLUTION OF CANDLES AS MORE THAN A GIMMICK
They’ve always been spiritual, but I think that scented candles in the home fragrance world is expanding. And it’s because people are starting to understand the importance of scent pertaining to moods. If you want to set a mood, whether working from home, or you are just enjoying the evening at home alone, or with a friend, or with your husband or wife — it’s important to set a mood.
Scented candles are on the rise. Many new candle companies are popping up all the time and I was one of them 5 years ago. I love to see all the entrepreneurship around home fragrance, and I love the idea of building a community that really loves and appreciates creativity.
That’s my goal — surrounding myself with people who love Black culture, history and beautiful fragrances.
ON THE SCENT THAT RESONATES MOST WITH THE CURRENT STATE OF THINGS
The one that I feel really resonates with what’s happening right now, would be Langston. I did all the extensive research and it included and reflects the things that Langston Hughes loved. I probably spent more time with the chemist for this particular candle than I’ve done with any of them.
When I imagine Langston Hughes, I imagine him in his creative space, sitting by his typewriter, in his favorite chair, which I imagine was leather. I wanted this beautiful, kind of sweet smokey notes of tobacco. He loved incense so we incorporated notes of it in there.
Cohesively he dedicated his work to the Black experience. A lot of his poetry of things that he wrote about, was his personal experiences in America and the injustices, our safety and us being negroes and not being seen as equal. So I think I would say that the Langston candle is the one that resonates most with today.
ON THE PROCESS
What I like to do is research the person. Josephine Baker for instance — I imagined what her boudoir would smell like. So when you think about the women in the 1920s and 30s in Paris, you wonder to yourself. “What kind of perfume did she wear?” It was perfume that had very soft powdery notes, so I added powder notes. And I also imagined at the end of her show, fans giving her bouquets of roses — so I put Moroccan rose milk in there. Then I imagined her drinking jasmine tea to keep her voice intact, so I put notes of jasmine in there.
It’s all conceptual and ideas, but what’s cool is when people smell it and their reaction is “Oh, yes! Yes!” and they feel it and can see it.
ON HARLEM CANDLE COMPANY’S BEGINNINGS
Well it started with my love and obsession for beautiful fragrances. And when I first started making candles, I was just doing it for friends and family, and for fun. Then when I got really, really into it and decided to create pretty packaging — then I said ‘oh!’ I should start telling stories around them. So I started out in my Harlem kitchen and I decided to use Jazz artists as inspiration all while listening to jazz and drinking a glasses of wine. It all kind of evolved from there.
ON THE RENAISSANCE + GOLDEN ERA OF JAZZ IN HARLEM
I don’t know if I could necessarily live in that era (laughs) but I would love to go back in time and experience some of the speakeasies, or be in the presence of Zora Neale Hurston. She and Langston Hughes were such good friends — just imagine partying and being out and about with them during that time period.
ON SMELL + ITS CONNECTION WITH TIME + MEMORY
Our sense of smell is the one that has the strongest connection to our memory. When you travel, or there is someone you love or miss, whether it be a grandmother or grandfather and they may have passed away, a special time of year — a simple smell can just transport you back to them or that special time.
I love to refer to scents to transport myself as a world traveler and lover of cultures. And with my candles, I love to enhance an environment because they are calming and relaxing.
ON THE CHALLENGES OF BEING A BLACK BUSINESS
You just have to learn how to keep It moving. We all know the statistics when it comes to fundraising and where funds go for entrepreneurs and how Black women have historically received the least amount as compared to our counterparts. I am in the process of fundraising and as far as adversities I’ll tell you one thing, no one has just tried to write me a check and I have consistent revenue and I’ve grown my company pretty well, year to year. We have to work a little harder to be recognized and to get the trust to be able to grow a solid business.
ON HER ROOTS + OBSESSION WITH HARLEM
I’m from Houston, Texas. I knew about the Harlem Renaissance because I studied it in school. But I didn’t really get to understand my studies of it all until I got here.
I moved to Harlem after graduating college for my first job in NYC, which was for management consulting. Then I decided that I wanted to live in Manhattan. I didn’t want to live in Brooklyn like everyone else, plus it was affordable! I wanted to live in a Black neighborhood. I just became very interested in learning more. It was moving to Harlem and just wanting to be knowledgeable about my neighborhood and its true relevance in the world.
History is also a very important thing for my family. It’s always been “Know your history! Know where you come from! Know who you are!” In fact, I found this picture of my grandfather and Duke Ellington that no one in the family even knew existed.
Follow the Harlem Candle Company on Instagram here, and follow Teri Johnson on Instagram here. Shop the brand here. Product is also available at Bloomingdale’s and select home goods stores.
